1791-1882
Italian
Francesco Hayez Galleries
Hayez came from a relatively poor family from Venice. His father was of French origin while his mother, Chiara Torcella, was from Murano. The child Francesco, youngest of five sons, was brought up by his mother sister, who had married Giovanni Binasco, a well-off shipowner and collector of art. From childhood he showed a predisposition for drawing, so his uncle apprenticed him to an art restorer. Later he became a student of the painter Francisco Magiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years. He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in 1806, where he studied under Teodoro Matteini. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for one year of study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned by Joachim Murat to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid 1830s he attended the Salotto Maffei salon in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei (whose portrait Hayez painted for her husband), and he was still in Milan in 1850 when he was appointed director of the Academy of Brera there.
Assessment of the career of Hayez is complicated by the fact that he often did not sign or date his works. Often the date indicated from the evidence is that at which the work was acquired or sold, not of its creation. Moreover he often painted the same compositions several times with minimal variations, or even with no variation. His early works show the influence of Ingres and the Nazarene movement. His later work participates in the Classical revival. Related Paintings of Francesco Hayez :. | The Seventh Crusade against Jerusalem | Zusammentreffen von Jakob und Esau | Portrat der Matilde Juva-Branca | Portrait of Don Giulio Vigoni as a Child | Odalisque | Related Artists:
James Gay Sawkins(1806-1878) was an artist who was born in 1806 in Yeovil, Somerset, England. At the age of 14, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his family, where he made his living painting miniature portraits on ivory. He lived in Cuba from 1835 to 1845 and visited Hawaii from January, 1850 to June, 1852. After working in Australia, he returned to England in 1855. Sawkins died in 1878 in Turnham Green (near London), England.
The Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mission House Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii) and the National Library of Australia (Canberra) are among the public collections holding works by James Gay Sawkins.
Jakob SmitsJakob Smits or Jacob Smits (Rotterdam, 9 July 1855 - Achterbos (Mol), 15 February 1928) was a Dutch-Flemish painter. He was born as son of a decorator. Jakob studied in Rotterdam at the academy and helped its father in the decoration business. From 1873 up to 1876 het studied at the Academy in Brussels, and afterwards also in Munich (1878-1880), Vienna (1880) and Rome (1880). In 1882, Jakob married his cousin Antje Doetje Kramer. They settled in Amsterdam, where Smits worked as a painter. He carried out, among other things, tasks for the museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Out of the marriage of Jakob and Antje two children, Theodora and Annie, were born. In 1884, the couple divorced.
Jakob Smits moved to Blaricum and in Haarlem becomes director of the Nijverheids- en Decoratieschool (E: Industry and Decoration school). He gets to know Albert Neuhuys, a painter of the The Hague School, and together they make excursions to Drenthe and the Campine in Belgium. Jakob Smits becomes impressed by the Campine landscape and he establishes himself in 1888, definitively in Achterbos (Mol). He pays 2,000 Belgian francs for a small farm which he develops to his Malvinahof. In the same year he marries Malvina Dedeyn, the daughter of a Brussels lawyer, who is disinherited because of this marriage. Smits lives in poverty while he works tirelessly for what he will call my simple work, symbolic, poetic and real. In 1897, he received a gold medal for his exhibitions of large water-colour paintings on a gold background in Munich and Dresden. He also paints a lot of portraits, especially of Malvina and of their children Boby, Marguerite and Kobe. In 1899 destiny strikes: in a few days time he loses his daughter Alice and his wife. In 1901, Smits marries with Josine Van Cauteren. In the same year he holds his first individual exposition in Antwerp. There he obtains much praise of colleagues and critics but finds no buyer for his work. The exhibited work De vader van de veroordeelde (E: the father of the convict) was acquired later that year by the Museum of Brussels.
Smits financial situation improved somewhat, but his family was put heavily on the test. In 1903 both his parents were ruined by a robbery and as a resulthe now had nine family members to maintain. At the request of the municipal authorities of Mol, Smits in 1907, arranged an international exhibition of artists who came to paint landscapes in Mol and its surroundings. The artist Paula Van Rompa-Zenke belonged to the arranging committee. There were no less than 68 painters participating, with Germans, Dutch, and Americans coming to Mol. The term Molse School was born. In 1910, Smits published an album with 25 engravings, which was dedicated to Queen Elisabeth. In 1912, the young Dirk Baksteen became a student of Smits.
In 1914, Smits stopped with the production of art work. He became President of the Comite voor hulpverlening en voedselvoorziening van het canton Mol (E: Committee for assistance and food supplies of the canton Mol). After World War I he continued his work with a totally new vision and style as engrave and painter.
BAGLIONE, GiovanniItalian Baroque Era Painter, active 1573-1644
A pupil of Francesco Morelli, he worked mainly in Rome, initially with a late-Mannerist style. He was also nicknamed Il Sordo del Barozzo. He published two books, The nine churches of Rome (1639) and The Lives of Painters, Sculptors, Architects and Engravers (active from 1572-1642)(1642). The last title is still seen as an important historical source for painters living in Rome during the life of Baglione.
Among those he chronicled, and for whom he was notorious in his animosity was Caravaggio, whose style had influenced him much. The latter was forced to leave the city after Baglione's accusations of sodomy. Baglione's Sacred love versus profane love, a response to Caravaggio's Love Victorious, shows an angel (Sacred Love) interrupting a 'meeting' between Cupid (Profane Love) and the Devil (portrayed with the face of Caravaggio).
He was employed in many considerable works in Rome during the pontificates of Clement VIII and Paul V. His main works are frescoes which can be seen in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, in the Cappella Borghese. For the church of Santa Maria dell'Orto he painted in the chapel of Our Lady with the Zuccheri scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin. Among other works which he executed for this church is a painting of Saint Sebastian. An excellent example of Baglione's work is The Last Supper at San Nicola in Carcere. From his brush also there is a Saint Stephen in the Cathedral at Perugia, and in that of Loreto a Saint Catherine. Pope Paul V knighted Baglione a Knight of the Order of Christ for his painting of Saint Peter Raising Tabitha from the Dead (1607) in St. Peter's Basilica. He also painted a St. Stephen for the cathedral of Perugia, and a St. Catharine for the cathedral of Loreto. The Giustizia hall at the Rocca dei Rossi was completely frescoed by Baglione. He died at Rome.